Critical Evaluation Music Magazine projectHeadstock

1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Headstock is a rock magazine aimed at teenagers from the ages of 13-19. My initial target gender was going to be aimed at males based on my previous survey results, although when designing my magazine I thought these results to be bias as perhaps not enough females took the survey. Another feature which would appeal to both genders about my magazine is the use of a female on the front cover (Jazzy) and the stereotypical rock band ‘Section Six’ within the DPS of which are all males.

As Section Six are already an existing band, the attitude and style of the band was very easy to convey within my magazine. Before I started my flat plans and sketches I ensured that I had taken images of Section Six. This was a crucial part when constructing my magazine, as the images could effectively determine the colours and layout of my magazine. Unfortunately the majority of my images came out blurry and I couldn’t use them on the front cover as the detail of the images wasn’t there. However, when redesigning my front cover I worked around these problems as I rescheduled a photo shoot with Jasmine (Jazzy). Although I hadn’t initially planned to feature two separate artists within my magazine, I feel that it adds realism and sets interest for both genders. When designing my double page spread, I again worked around the issue with my images using effects on Photoshop and designing my layout around the images which I could use. After I had retaken the photos for my front cover, which also changed my initial ideas I was finally ready to sketch out some plans

The main inspiration for the layout of my magazine came from Q and NME, as I like the pictorial style of the covers but also wanted to combine some of these conventions of the magazines within my own making an original style. Here is an example of Q magazine which I have used in my own style.

In this particular issue of Q, I really like the layout and theme of the cover and this was something I used as inspiration when designing my front cover. As the examples show, I have imitated the main image size and also use of bold white font on the masthead, however the complete style of the two are very different in comparison. This is why I consider my magazine to be conventional, but with a sense of originally and personalisation.

When designing the layout of my magazine, I knew that by placing my cover lines within the left third of the cover would not only look more appealing for the viewer but leave the page looking tidy which is easier for the viewer to read and also navigate through the pages of my magazine. To make my text stand out I used a bright background colour making sure it was a consistent style from the colour theme and placed bold text over it. My menu section at the bottom of the page also demonstrates the separate pages within the magazine as I have used different colours on each chunk of text. I wanted to give the readers a preview of the information within my magazine, so I included relevant bands which I thought my target audience would be interested in. This was another feature that would set the theme and genre of my magazine.

2. How does your media product represent particular social groups? + 5. How did you attract/ address your audience? Include evidence of audience feedback.

As Headstock is a rock music magazine, I have purposely portrayed this throughout. On the front cover I have featured an acoustic guitar, so that readers can depict straight away the genre of the mag, and also contextually I have featured band names which are of the genre I am aiming it at. My magazine represents the style and attitude of young social groups in the interest of this music genre, as it conveys the rockability style of young people in today’s society. I achieved this from analysing my survey monkey results as I then had the knowledge of what my audience wanted. The questions relevant to this were; ‘Who is your favourite artist?’, ‘Do you attend festivals?’ and ‘What genre of music magazine do you purchase?’ These results were all factors which affected the outcome of my magazine in terms of appearance and content following the needs of my target audience. I then knew what I could include within my magazine and what would put my audience off. This meant that my magazine wasn’t necessarily what I would find appealing which was something I consistently kept in mind.

My magazine represents the ‘rock’ social groups in an interesting and quirky way. I feel that although many artists within this field of music are ‘mainstream’, also others are not and are proud to be aiming themselves at alternative audiences. That is they like to present new, striking and challenging products to the listeners. I featured bands

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16 17 18 19 20+

How old are you?

How old are you?

11

11.5

12

12.5

13

13.5

14

Male Female

What gender are you?

What gender are you?

in particular that fall under this idea of an alternative audience, making my magazine original in its content. As well as featuring bands and artists in my magazine, I included TV shows and websites that are also associated with my target audience making my magazine more relevant for the time of release. Overall my magazine represents the social group that it is aimed at, in an interesting and appropriate way, also presenting audiences outside of my aimed field, to perhaps take an interest in my magazine because of its initial appeal to young people. I attracted my audience by following their needs from my survey results.Below are the results of my survey monkey questionnaire;

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rock indie metal

Which genre do you prefer?

Which genre do youprefer?

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1012

NME Kerrang! Mixmag Metal Hammer Mojo Q Rave None of theabove

Which magazine do you read?

Which magazine do you read?

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Glastonbury Download Latitute Redding V-fest None

What festivals have you attended?

What festivals have you attended?

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15

20

25

TV/Musicchannels

Youtube Other

How do you view music videos?

How do you view musicvideos?

3. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

Headstock is a typical conventional looking magazine but is also unique in the way that my artists are presented within the issue. I wanted my artists to portray their style and attitude on page in a more interesting way than with the common neatly laid out style that many magazines use time and time again. This can be seen on my double page spread, where I have used many effects and fonts to bring life to the page, in contrast to magazines such as Kerrang or NME where the content of the page is very clean and minimalistic, relying on main images to sell the mag. It is for this reason that I feel my magazine would benefit from being distributed from places where gig venues are held, for example the Waterfront in Norwich. I think that places like this in particular may be more interested in getting the feel of the band and also researching into information of the band/artists, whereas mainstream magazines such as Kerrang or NME may not cater to these alternative audiences. I also wanted my magazine to modernise itself from conventional magazines, meaning that my magazine would benefit from being an internal product on the internet, being posted to such websites as facebook and myspace, as these are the type of websites my audience spend a lot of their time on. My reasons for believing Headstock would benefit from being an interactive source of media can be justified from my survey results;

These results predominately showed that my audience purchased a big majority of their media resources from the internet, and therefore my magazine would be benefit a great deal in order to cater to these alternative audiences.

4. Who would be the audience for your media product?

Reader profile: • Male or Female• Ages between 13 – 19• Interest in rock and alternative music for small audiences (unsigned bands)• People who may spend a lot of time on the internet (good for internet launch)• An interest in the artists profile and has time to read about the information• Modern young social audience• Share an interest in festivals• Enjoy music a lot• Maybe aspiring to be an artist within this genre of music

6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

When constructing my magazine I used Photoshop CS3. Previous to the start of my media course I had little knowledge about how to use the programme and didn’t know where to begin. Whilst experimenting with my preliminary tasks of making a CD cover and producing a college magazine, I slowly gained skills and experience on the programme. I learnt various tools I could use to create effects and manipulate images, and also gained some insight into how it is constructed within the media industry. The main effects which I used were; Stroke, curves and, brushes. As many of my fonts were very complex and would take a long time to produce myself, we had an option of getting our fonts from ‘dafont.com’ and also our brushes from ‘psbrushes.net’. These resources gave me more time and also added some personalisation as Photoshop didn’t include these effects on the programme. When constructing my magazine in Photoshop, it became apparent that if my main image didn’t have a lot of detail of the artist, the outcome wouldn’t be as affective. Also when designing my layouts I ensured that the page was organised so that the information on the covers would be tidy and easy for the audience to read. I learnt that conventional covers were not as simple as they appear, when I was taught about features within the magazine such as; left third, selling line, cover lines, masthead and date lines. I wasn’t aware of the media language before the start of this course and that knowledge has helped a great deal when constructing my magazine.

7. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

CD COVERS

COLLEGE MAGAZINE

Looking back at the preliminary task I feel I have learnt a lot and gained a great deal of experience from my progression to the full product. As you can see, my previous work has developed and changed from my final piece, but I have continued with my personal style and choice of Photoshop effects. I realised that time management and working to deadlines is key to producing a good product and also the importance of audience research and to discover the values of my target audience with features such as a clear and iconic masthead must be met. I have also learnt that in the media business, the technologies within the field are continuously changing and we must adapt to the needs of a modern standard and also listen to what our audience want.

Overall, I feel I have learnt many things in context of how to make a product work and also gained a lot of experience when producing my end result. I am very pleased with the way my work has progressed from the past year and I am looking forward to the next task in the start of A2.